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Investing IS a gamble. Ask anyone who's lost money "playing" the market. You've heard of capital losses? And how you can only take $3000 a year?
Ask me ? i have been" gambling" since 1987 with a 1200% gain doing nothing but letting the dough ride through it all in some plain ole fidelity funds. 100k is 1.2 million today.
If you believe your own bull-sh*t your going to end up being quite poor over time unless you strike it rich as a business owner. Quite frankly anyone with so little understanding of financial markets and investing stands little chance of being a succesful business owner as well.
You need to learn the difference between investing and speculating.
All i can say is good luck in your beliefs.
Last edited by mathjak107; 03-30-2011 at 03:52 AM..
If thats what you believe then great , enjoy your life and good luck .. I just hope us tax payers dont end up having to support you. Watch that lid on that dumpster , they have a tendency to close while your rumaging through... lol
Last edited by mathjak107; 03-30-2011 at 04:09 AM..
Investing IS a gamble. Ask anyone who's lost money "playing" the market. You've heard of capital losses? And how you can only take $3000 a year?
You might be confusing investing wisely with taking shortcuts (playing the market).
Also, you can carry over capital losses which can actually work to your advantage by selling large profitable positions while simultaneously "culling" your losers during "down" years.
Yes, I know about capital loss carryover, I have done taxes as a second job for the past six years now. But it's limited to $3000 a year until you use it up. And $3000 off your gross doesn't really amount to much in tax savings...especially for those who don't owe any tax after their standard deduction and exemptions.
Any way you look at it, you will offset $3000 in gains and thus not pay taxes on that $3000. At 15% that is $450 off my tax bill.
Nonetheless, investing wisely is not gambling. There are fixed income vehicles with tax advantages that can be used to implement a very effective strategy.
Folks who try and get rich quick can make some very bad choices and after getting burned "playing the market" they may get the idea it is gambling. But, ultimately it was their own ignorance and arrogance that results in their getting a haircut. Rather than acknowledging their personal mistakes, they tend to look for a scapegoat. Such is the human condition.
Yes, it's definite in the sense that it's what you're used to. It's the mental box you live in. But it is not all there is. There's much, much, more outside that mental box you're living in.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TKramar
How can you "lose"? I get a paycheck every other week, and I will do so for the rest of my life..
Ummm, how can you know that you will get a paychedk every two weeks for the rest of your life? Have you never heard of being laid off? Have you never heard of being disabled (either permanently or temporarilly)? Do you think these things will never happen you you, even though they do to almost everyone at some point? I mean, I can't even believe that anyone would make such a statement in this day and age
Quote:
Originally Posted by TKramar
Of course, I'm not concerned with "retiring" or accumulating "wealth", because those things hold no interest for me.
That's fine if you're not interested. Just don't talk badly about stuff you have no clue about, ok? I don't mean that as a personal attack. It's just a fact. You have no clue about investing and you don't want to learn. So just leave it at that.
I don't see anything dishonorable about earning an income from sources other than working for a paycheck. People who live paycheck to paycheck are very likely to become completely dependent on taxpayers or charity at some point in their lives. Those who save and invest are (potentially) able to be freed from the constraints of the everyday work world to solve problems that are not solved by the worlds of commerce or government. You might care to read:
If ths stock market sours, you take less out of your portfolio. If the entire stock market goes to ZERO then we're all totally screwed anyway, so it won't matter.
Last edited by mysticaltyger; 03-30-2011 at 11:58 PM..
Investing IS a gamble. Ask anyone who's lost money "playing" the market. You've heard of capital losses? And how you can only take $3000 a year?
You don't understand the difference between gambling and taking prudent risks. In gambling, the odds are strongly against you. In investing, the odds are in your favor, especially if you have your funds spread in more than just one stock or one bond or one type of investment...AND if you stick with it for a long period of time EG, YEARS AND DECADES, not just a few months or a year or two.
I would liken investing to planting crops. In some years, crops fail miserably. In most years, crops do ok or do great. But one thing is for sure....if you don't plant anything, you won't have a crop. The same is true with investing.
Think of stocks and bonds as 2 different types of crops. One type of crop yields a lot in the long term, but has some really miserable years where it fails badly (stocks). Another type of crop rarely fails, but yields less over long periods of time (bonds). When you plant 2 different types of crops at the same time, you reduce your risk of total failure in any given year. Over the long run, mixing in the steady crop (bonds) will lower your total yield over the long run, but will dramatically reduce your chances of starving to death in bad years.
It's certainly true...nothing is guranteed. But that goes for everything: Your job, the fact that the government might fail, the fact that banks might fail, the fact that you could lose the purchasing power of your wages and/or bank savings to massive inflation, the fact that a massive famine is possible, etc.
All I can say is I'm glad the world's farmers don't think as you do. We'd all starve to death!
Last edited by mysticaltyger; 03-31-2011 at 12:25 AM..
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